Solace of Urban Spaces
In this recent work, I observe and create city and
home landscape, public and personal landscapes, internal and external
landscapes. I am interested in the elements of the cityscape I see
from my window. The surfaces illuminate the morning and evening, domestic
and urban. The images on the surface of the pots represent this time
passage and surrounds, embraces the actual use of the pots.
Together all these pots make up a visual experience that reflects
the private and public transitions of our lives. As all of this pottery
is useful it is made to be experienced in two ways: public - in a gallery,
to look at, and then private - in you home as useful object.
In this exhibition the cups with cityscapes lined the walls around
the gallery. The cups are decorated with specific streets from my neighborhood,
all around downtown Rochester. One side of the tumbler is the nighttime,
the other morning. These tumblers are useful sizes and can be used
for any drinking nourishment.
Next there was a half circle of large pitchers, displayed on very
tall pedestals. These pitchers are decorated with ironwork fence patterns.
These are large pitchers; they are strong in their thickness, handle
size and their presence. Such a large pitcher would be used often to
make more of a statement, at a formal dining occasion or large gathering.
Inside this half circle of pitchers there are a few very low pedestals
that have cream and sugar beds on them. Being displayed at knee height
leads the viewer to a level of intimacy when investigating the objects.
The viewer has to bend over to see the work and investigate it closely.
This is similar to using the work. The Cream and Sugar sets are delicate,
and demand the users attention when pouring out their nourishment into
the coffee drinking ritual.
When moving through the gallery, one walks around the outside, in
the city, then walks around the fence of pitchers into the small domestic
cream and sugar sets. When looking at the cream and sugar sets, one
looks through the pitcher fence to the city landscape outside. |